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Ed Ruscha’s
ART OF TAILORING

Huntsman’s legendary sartorial style has become a bona fide work of art, following a collaboration between the house and celebrated American artist Ed Ruscha.

Ruscha has lent the design of his striking 1987 work, “Boy Meets Girl,”– an acrylic painting that depicts a dazzling grid of lights, overlaid with the words “Boy Meets Girl” – to the lining of a one-off Huntsman jacket, which was successfully auctioned for $26,000 in October to benefit America’s Alzheimer’s Association.

Ed & Eddie Ruscha in their ‘Boy Meets Girl’ jackets

Carol Pierce, general manager at Huntsman, relates how the painstaking process of creating the lining was done. Each stage of printing the lining and then cutting it to fit the garments, was approved by Ruscha. “Technically, it’s quite a task that you have to take on,” says Pierce. “because you cut the actual lining so that all the detail of the painting matches up perfectly.” Pierce was charged with finding the best digital printer who could create the design with right inks, quality of print, and colour palette. Following this process, samples had to be sent back and forth between the printer, Huntsman’s tailors, and Ruscha’s studio, to ensure they met with the artist’s exacting standards. In all, the process for approving the printing of Ruscha’s work on the silk took almost a year.

One jacket only will be available for sale, to be made bespoke for the winner of the auction at the Alzheimer’s Association’s Rita Hayworth Gala in New York on October 25th. Five “artist’s proofs” have been made and are not for sale. The first one for Lauren Hutton, owner of the original “Boy Meets Girl” painting. Miss Hutton has long been a client of Huntsman and often wears the house’s tailored jackets and tuxedos.

Eddie Ruscha with his slate grey velvet smoking jacket. Seeing the finished ‘Boy Meets Girl’ jacket for the first time, fitted in the Kingsman Room by Head Cutter Campbell Carey

The idea for the collaboration came about when Anthony Peck, (son of legendary Huntsman customer Gregory Peck) saw the printed silk linings that Huntsman had created with works by Francis Bacon and René Magritte. Brainstorming with our Chairman Pierre Lagrange, Tony suggested Ed Ruscha to collaborate on a jacket. Visiting the artist in his Los Angeles studio, Lagrange recalls the artist strongly supporting the idea of creating this special Huntsman piece, being keen to raise money and awareness for the Alzheimer’s Association charity and its research.

To celebrate this creative collaboration, coinciding with the opening of the exhibition of Ruscha’s work at London’s Gagosian Gallery on October 4th (www.gagosian.com). Huntsman will display the prototype and the silk print to be used for the winner of the bespoke jacket in the windows of its Savile Row establishment.